


Good Things Come In Three

by ma_r



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Multi, Polyamory, Polygamy, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 03:45:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13895538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ma_r/pseuds/ma_r
Summary: Gwaine was born with two soulmarks and he was afraid that when the time came, he would be forced to choose.





	Good Things Come In Three

  
Gwaine had been six when he realized he was different.

He had been on a pool party with some of his friends and one of them, John, had pointed at his chest and asked: _‘Why do you have two?’_. At first, Gwaine was confused at what he meant. But then he looked down. In his chest, there where two proud birds displayed: a crow and a hummingbird. They had appeared on his body long before he was born. Gwaine had shrugged and cannonballed into the pool, forgetting about John’s question for a whole day. Until a ‘concerned’ parent had called his house and talked to his father about how he had the mark of the devil. That it was unnatural for a person to have two soul marks, two soulmates. That the only solution was to seek God and a practiced priest that could ‘exorcise the devil out of him.’ His father had laughed and hanged up the phone.

He had then gathered Gwaine into his arms and told him. “There is nothing unnatural in having two soulmates. Look.” And he had raised his shirt sleeves and Gwaine saw a bird and a fish, one in each arm. “This is your mother.” He pointed to the bird. Gwaine smiled and touched the mark. “There are many people who are born with two soul marks. Your mom and I are lucky that we found each other.” Gwaine had smiled and gone outside to play. He should have asked about the fish, about his father’s other soulmate. If he had, maybe he wouldn’t have left them for _her_ when Gwaine was 11.

He had seen his father again when he was 18. After having buried his mother he had gone searching for him and found him in a nice house. He was carrying a weeks-old baby when he had opened the door. When he saw Gwaine his face had soured.

During their talk they had been interrupted by Martha, his father’s other soulmate. Gwaine had learned that while he and his mother suffered for years after his father disappeared, he had gotten busy. Gwaine had four siblings, the oldest was just six, the youngest was the baby is his father's arms. He learned that his existence had been kept a secret and in his father’s tale’s his mother had died years ago. Martha had been understandably upset and had turned her back to his father. His father had told Gwaine to get out and he did, but not after screaming at him.

When he was 21 he saw his father for the last time and during this visit, he learned the reason why his father had left. Apparently, he had to know. He had two soulmates, he was forced to choose and while he loved Gwaine's mother, Loreen, Martha was a mystery he had needed to solve. At 21 Gwaine learned that when the moment came, he would also be forced to choose. While his father was no longer part of his life, Martha was.

After she had learned of his existence she had insisted that he should meet his half-siblings. Somehow he became a constant but distant presence in their lives, more like a fun uncle than an older brother.

When he was 25, he meet Percival, the owner of the hummingbird in his chest. Gwaine was doing absolutely nothing productive with his life, just constantly fluttering from job to job with no real purpose but to have fun and enjoy. Percival had been his manager in one of those jobs.

The first moment they had met, something in Gwaine told him that he was the one. There really wasn’t anything that gave it away. It was just something Gwaine knew, the same way he knew that the sky was blue and that he needed to breathe to survive.

Their connection had been instantaneous, their lovemaking life-altering. Gwaine quit the job soon after and found another one to occupy his time, but he kept Percival.

Percival who has amazing in every sense of the word, beautiful and kind, a gentleman in the age of assholes. He kept making Gwaine laugh and open up to him in a way that no one ever had. He was a rock in the river that was Gwaine, making him slow down and enjoy without ever stopping him.

It was impossible not to fall in love and fall hard.

The first time that Percival had seen that his mark shared space with another one, he had gazed into Gwaine’s eyes and somehow had understood without Gwaine telling him anything. The fear in Gwaine’s heart that he would become just like his father. That he would have to choose if he ever meet the other one. Percival also saw the desire Gwaine had to meet the other, to get to know them. The knowledge that no matter what, someone would get hurt and that Gwaine would blame himself no matter the outcome. Percival had kissed him and then each mark in turn.

They never talked about it, about The Other, as Gwaine had started to refer to them. After all it was statically improbable that he would ever meet them. Most people were lucky to meet their soulmates. Meeting two? There was almost an statistical impossibility.

He met Elena five years after meeting Percival. He had been out drinking with his friends slash coworkers. She had been their waitress, literally falling into his arms after she slipping on spilled beer. She was only 22 and had a shoe-in-the-mouth syndrome. Her blonde hair had been in a braid and her skirt had been so incredibly short that Gwaine had trouble concentrating on anything else.

She had gasped when he saw him and had un-bashfully raised her shirt. On her left breast, almost as if it was cradling it, was a wolf. The same wolf Percival had in his right breast.

Gwaine had nodded and taken her hand. In a near-by coffee shop he sat with her and called Percival, they didn’t really talk until he arrived.

Gwaine was _not_ going to be like his father and hide one of his soulmates from the other. He refused to do that to either one of them.

Percival arrived only twenty minutes later and when he saw Elena, he understood easily and quickly what was going on.

He sat next to Gwaine and was quiet, waiting patiently for Gwaine to speak.

“Elena, this is Percival.” Elena smiled, confused and shook Percival’s hand. The silence continued. “He is… well, you are… both of you… hmmm… both are…how to… soulmates, both of you, mine.”

“What?” Elena asked, confused. Percival sighed.

“Just explain it Gwaine.”

“I have two soulmarks,” Gwaine said, Elena’s eyes went from Percival to Gwaine and back again. “I met Percival five years ago.”

“Oh! I understand” Elena said, her smile dropped before she regained it, it was less blinding, less shining. “I… maybe, if… if Percival is okay with it, of course. I don’t want to impose, really and it’s okay if… but I don’t want to make anything weird, just I… can we still be friends?”

Percival shook his head and smiled at Elena. “He is your soulmate too.” He said. “He is a pain in the ass sometimes.” Elena laughed and Percival blushed when he caught the innuendo. Gwaine smiled at both of them. “If I had been the one to meet him later, I would have liked the chance to know him.”

Elena beemed.

The three of them continued to talk for hours until Elena remembered she was supposed to be working. After escorting her to the bar once more, they parted ways. Gwaine’s phone one cell-phone number heavier.

Once they got home, Percival made tea and he sat next to Gwaine on the couch. He gave him the cup and hugged his knees.

“Sorry.” Said Gwaine.

“Don’t be.” Percival whispered and then Gwaine started crying, terrified that he would have to break someone’s heart.

The next morning, when Elena asked to meet again, Gwaine said yes.

Elena was like the kelp in the river that was Gwaine, she was nurturing and energetic. She made Gwaine feel refreshed with just a look. Somehow the two of them always seemed to end up in trouble. Together they were carefree.

It was easy to fall in love with Elena, with her smiles and enthusiasm. With the way she didn’t hold back. With her honesty and passion. Their relationship remained platonic, but Gwaine could feel how both of them were fighting the desire for it to be more.

Elena and Percival became fast friends. Their favorite topic to talk about wasn’t Gwaine as one would expect, but books. The words of different authors brought them together and created a relationship based on mutual respect and trust.

The relationship between the three of them was more complicated than their individuals one. But not because of jealousy or anger or resentment, but because the three of them could feel the others holding back. Elena and Percival knew why that was. They knew, in their bones, in their souls, that Gwaine was afraid of choosing, of hurting one of them, and they were right.

On the anniversary of their meeting, Percival and Elena sat on the table with Gwaine. Both of them looked him directly in the eyes and made the choice for him.

“You don’t have to choose.” They told him. “We, the three of us, can be together.” Gwaine had broken down in tears and two days later, Elena had moved into what once had been Percival and Gwaine's home.

People from the outside of the relationship couldn’t seem to understand that Percival wasn’t sharing Gwaine’s heart with Elena or that Elena was not cuckolding Percival. They both simply _were_. Gwaine didn’t love one more than he did the other, he didn’t prefer the company or the sex of one above the other. He loved them both, in equal measure, with all his heart, he just felt it and displayed it differently.

With Percival, it was long talks and holding hands, with Elena, was loud singing and touching feet. It was long make-out sessions versus a quick blowjob in the loos.

People wondered and made comments. they constantly insinuated to Elena that she was just a beard. They told Percival that he was going to be replaced. To Gwaine that he had to choose, to make up his mind, he couldn’t love two people, equally, at the same time. But those people were wrong.

Others simply sexualized their relationship, assuming that a threesome was the only way they knew how to fuck. That one of them could be easily tempted to cheat. None of them could deny that the people’s assumption hurt, but when the three of them were together, hiding away from all the stigma and the hate, it was easy to forget.

It was not difficult to explain their relationship: Gwaine was Percival and Elena’s soulmate and partner. Percival and Elena were friends, close friends, best friends even. And when people asked, _‘How can you stand to share?’_ they always replayed the same way: _‘I am not sharing.’_ The same way you didn’t share a private memory and you didn’t share your darkest thoughts. They didn't have to share because Gwaine was _theirs_ , not hers, not his, _theirs_. When they asked _‘How can you not hate him/her?_ ’ They answered: _‘I love him/her the same way you love a friend.’_

In their sanctuary, in their home, they shared laughter while they cooked breakfast and drowned their pancakes in syrup. When they sat quietly and read, or when they danced in their underwear. They shared their anger with screams and slamming doors, their sadness with tears and booze.

They shared their love when they sang to each other, or with a small note reminding the other to wear their scarf. With hugs and smiles and glances, with small tokens and compliments.

They shared their love when Elena cheekedly winked as she tossed a bottle of lube and condoms at Percival and told him to _‘Make sure he relaxes.’_  Or when Percival kissed Elena’s cheek before she and Gwaine went on date night. When both of them shared an amused gaze when they saw Gwaine do something stupid or both of them ganged up on Gwaine to tickle him.

They shared their love when Elena broke her arm and she had been loopy with the painkillers. When Percival was fighting influenza and constantly woke them up with his nightmares. When Gwaine got a nasty flu and refused to see either one of them in fear of them catching it.

It was their love they shared when they bathed, the three of them squeezed together in a too-small bathtub. There was wine and bubbles and candles, and they enjoyed each other’s company as they talked. Sometimes it turned playful and a water fight erupted. Sometimes they just laid together in the water, feeling it cool as they enjoyed the moment. Other times, the tantalizing flash of skin proved to much to one of them and they found pleasure in each other bodies. It was during those moments, when the three of them were so intimately bounded, that they knew that they had made the right choice: they loved each other and nothing could take that away from them.

So when people asked: _‘How could you choose this?’_ They always replied _‘How could I not?’_

**Author's Note:**

> I have always wanted to write this relationship, originally this was planned to be a side story to a longer story I am working on right now (I have been working on it for YEARS, it may never be finished), but while the original story is stuck in an endless loop of writer's block and too-slow writing, this one just took over me and practically wrote itself. 
> 
> The original concept for this relationship was much more angst ridden, but it didn't pan out and I am to happy with the results to be upset about it.
> 
> If you liked this story, maybe you will like [The Hummingbird's Cry](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12543756) a non-incest story centred in the relationship between Arthur and Morgana 
> 
> As always, your feedback is important and encouraged.
> 
> Find me on [Tumblr](http://exolovek.tumblr.com/) or check out my [Merlin Fic's Rec Blog](https://howshitgoes.tumblr.com)


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